<p>I have one of those bathroom scales that purports to measure your body fat by passing an electrical current through your body. It’s as accurate as any other easy method, which is to say, not very accurate at all.</p>
<p>What I have done is record my weight and body fat percentage every day for six months. By averaging those two numbers over a long period of time, I can get a pretty decent number for lean body mass. Subtract that from my current weight, and I know my current body fat. The advantage of averaging over a long period of time is that it tends to smooth out the big inaccuracies of these scales - they produce different readings depending on hydration levels.</p>
<p>BC: I’ve got some new weights, too. WalMart has restocked and finally had 10 pound plates in stock ($8.67 each) I got four for my dumbbell set. I’ve already got two sets of bars so I can now have a pair at 23.6 pounds and a pair at 28.6 pounds configured at the same time. I’ve still got four 2.5 pound plates I’m not using, so I can bump one of those sets up to 33.6 pounds or combine them for heavier weights – 38.6 pounds, 43.6 pounds, or 48.6 pounds with the plates I have. That should be “adequate” for a while. I may be (formerly) fat, but I’m not yet (formerly) weak!</p>
<p>WalMart now has the gray metal hex dumbbells in all sizes, all under $1 a pound. </p>
<p>10
15
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25
30
35
40</p>
<p>They are not as nice as the Reebok rubber weights you linked at Target, but they are priced right and Svetlana-approved for T-pushups!</p>
<p>Ah, finally able to write a proper response to everyone. Can’t tell you how many times since Sunday that I’ve come to this thread, almost read the last post, then get sidelined by something else. For all those who are sick and/or injured, I can feel your pain, and know of your frustration. Sometimes I read your stories and am so impressed with the determination that exudes from your posts and wonder why I can’t be so motivated. But then I realize I am motivated, and we each are in our own respective ways. We each have different specific goals, but the one we have in common is to find our way to a more healthier-lived lifestyle. We will never achieve perfection, but we’re doing better than those who have no desire to make changes (differentiated from some who want to make changes but just haven’t found the right answers for them yet). As a ‘spiritual’ person (as opposed to religious), I do believe that it is pleasing to God when she sees us care for our bodies in a way that shows gratitude for the life we’ve been given. Several days ago a friend of mine posted this on her facebook wall and it just resonated with me:</p>
<p>I Have Learned
So much from God
That I can no longer
Call Myself
A Christian, a Hindu, a Muslim,
A Buddhist, a Jew. -Hafiz</p>
<p>I have no desire to turn this into a religious/spiritual thread, but for me, I think God wants me to take care of this instrument that she has given me, but also enjoy creation, and sometimes that is in the form of special treats (like chocolate!). (Why am I feeling so philosophical tonight?). </p>
<p>Yea, by the way, last night I incline leg pressed 5 reps of 450 lbs., twice! My trainer had to get another gym staff member to help him spot me, so I had a guy on each end of the bar! Yep… five plates of 45 lbs. on each end!</p>
<p>teriwtt, I love the idea of taking care of our instruments, and am trying to live that way. I also love that you’re a butt-kicking hard core gym rat! (I mean that as the highest compliment)</p>
<p>Did compact chains today: Burpee, pushup, come up partway, row, tricep press, curl, press with calf raise. Pick one of those exercises (I chose curl the first time), repeat adding a curl each time until you get to 10. Go back to 1. Keep going for 10 minutes. Go do 10 minutes of cardio (I chose the elliptical). Do another 10 minute compact chain choosing another exercise (triceps). Lather, rinse, repeat. Do not choose the push up as your adding exercise unless you are Svetlana.</p>
<p>Trainer gave me the choice of 5 or 8 lb. dumbbells. I wisely chose the 5’s.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t choose burpees, either! I did six of them in 30 seconds while completely totally gassed in my iPod workout yesterday – immediately after squats with curl/press and one-arm stability ball dumbbell presses, no rest in between. I was really proud of those six burpees, then I realized that I was bent over panting like a dog, just trying to catch any kind of breath. Muscle fatigue would be the limiting factor on pushups. With burpees, it’s completely running out of gas.</p>
<p>Smart move picking the ligher weights. You don’t want to go heavy for curling unless you like your arms to ache! iPod nazi has me doing lateral raises on top of lateral raises (arms outstretched, lifting dumbbells). I’m kicking myself for giving way my 8 pound dumbbells. The 10 pounders are killing me on those things. I keep thinking I’ll get used to them, but…</p>
<p>What am I doing wrong? I finally gave in to curiosity and looked up what a “plank” is. It is way harder than it looks but it did not raise my heart rate, so far as I can tell. Do I just need to do more?</p>
<p>Plank and side plank are stationary stability exercises. They won’t raise your heart rate or burn a lot of calories. They will make you much, much fitter. Remember that you have to tense or contract the ab muscles for the plank to give maximum benefit. Holding it for 30 seconds would be good. 60 seconds would be fantastic. You can also start by doing 10 seconds. Rest. 10 more seconds. Rest. Etc.</p>
<p>Exercises that burn the most calories and raise your heart rate are exercises that move big muscles, ideally multiple big muscles at the same time. Stepping up and down on a step. Even better, stepping up and down on a step while pressing a pair of dumbbells up and down over your head. Those sorts of exercises will gas you in pretty short order.</p>
<p>Walked on the dreadmill for an hour yesterday. Too cold to walk outside and it made my chest burn. More chicken soup and then some scrambled egg whites. The best was a glass of wine last night! Had to break down and take some cold meds last night so I could sleep through the night. Going to try the bike this morning but don’t know how long I will last. Pretty sure most people will stay away from me as I sniffle and sneeze.</p>
<p>teriwtt…Awesome! You are really doing well!</p>
<p>Day 5 of being back at the gym. No weights today, just cardio. How do you all spend so long on the bike? 15 - 20 minutes and I’m done! Oh well, to each their own – I actually don’t mind the t(d)readmill. I’ve started going earlier in the morning than I used to – my “carrot” is the 2nd cup of coffee waiting for me at home. Clearly, though, the best part of going to the gym is finishing/leaving!</p>
<p>Man…I am so discouraged! I really struggled with biking this morning. I know I just recovered from having the stomach flu and now have a bad cold on top of that but I couldn’t finish my hour on the bike even at level 7. I know that I should be happy I got some time in but it is a little hard to take. grrr… I walked a little on the dreadmill to try and improve my spirits and that didn’t work. No way could I do weights. Can I just finish my whine by saying I hate being sick!!! Was trying to channel MOWC to get through my workpout (;))</p>
<p>Nobody should try to workout through an illness unless they are getting paid like a professional athlete. Your body doesn’t have the energy for it. Take a break for a couple of days. Get well. Your workouts will bounce back even stronger for having taken the recovery time.</p>
<p>CBBBlinker:</p>
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<p>I can’t do it either. 30 minutes on the Airdyne is about my limit. I’ve got one workout that goes 42 minutes including warmup and cool down and that’s more than I can stand. I’ve come to realize that 45 to 60 minutes is all I’ve got for just about any workout. I even enjoy my hilly state park hikes when I keep them under an hour. I don’t think going longer than an hour accomplishes anything except making you feel run-down. As I shift from weight loss to fitness as a goal, I actually think I’ll be looking at doing intense 30 minute workouts.</p>
<p>Planks for 60 seconds? Dear Lord. Thankfully the youtube video I watched said 10 seconds. I can do a few of those.</p>
<p>H is reading a book called “Younger Next Year” that talks about a lot of the things you all have been saying here, about exercise and staying fit as you get older. </p>
<p>My accomplishment for the day was making a dent in the unhealthy stuff in the pantry and donating it to a food drive. I did feel a twinge of guilt foisting my boxes of pasta and jars of alfredo sauce on the less fortunate, but they can choose not to take it if they don’t want it . . .</p>
<p>60 seconds is a long time. iPod nazi started me out at 30 seconds and then moved to 45 seconds. Rather than going longer at that point, he upped the ante by making me do the plank with my forearms on the stability ball. Start moving the arms back and forth a little on the ball and you’ve got Stuart McGill’s “stir the pot” exercise – which is really, really hard. He upped the ante again this week. Now, while I’m doing 45 seconds of plank with my arms on the stability ball, he has ordered me to lift one leg off the ground for 5 seconds. Then, put it back down and lift the other leg off the ground. And, so on and so forth, alternating legs for the 45 seconds. I’m pretty wobbly…</p>
<p>Do the plank and the side plank a couple times a week and six months from now you will feel amazing results.</p>
<p>NorthMinnesota - might as well accept it that if you come here looking for encouragement to continue working out while sick, you won’t find it. I learned that about three weeks ago. It was devastating for me to stop the routine I was in, but the wise posters here kept telling me to do so. I did, and survived. You will, too. Why push yourself when your body is already trying to compensate for being sick?</p>
<p>As I began to feel a bit better, I told my trainer I wanted to meet, but mostly just to get me to move because I’d been basically been sitting around for almost two weeks (had the ankle injury, too). We started back really slowly, but moving was better than sitting around doing nothing. He cut way back on most of my stuff (weights/reps, etc.) but I was moving. Honestly, last night was probably the first time I did the serious cardio work on my elliptical that I had been doing prior to the injury/illness (5 minute warm up, 20-25 minutes of two minutes normal speed, one minute high intensity, then 5 minute cool down). I had been doing the elliptical (again, to keep myself moving), but at a very steady rate with no speed increases… nothing that got my heart rate up really high. So go easy on yourself, and feel free to throw this back in my face when I get sick/injured again!</p>
<p>MOWC - yea, I don’t think so, unless at 90-years old I’m throwing shot put for records!</p>
<p>Idad - I asked my trainer about the one-legged squat today and his reply was, you’ve already done it. Before you get all impressed, it’s not quite the way Miss Atlas does it in the video. Our protocol: take a beam and place it on top of two foam pads at each end. Stand on the beam with one leg out in front of you, holding a medicine ball with hands outstretched in front of you parallel to the ground, and squat on the leg that is balancing on the beam. When I told him about the video and going all the way to the ground, he expressed some concerns. He said whether or not you can go all the way to the ground is dependent on each person’s build. He says when you do a squat, your knee shouldn’t go out much further than the end of your toe. He also thinks the exercise is more efficient and safer if you only go down as far as your thigh being parallel to the ground because to go further, you’re putting undue stress on the knee. So if you’re long between the hip and thigh, you might not even be able to get parallel to the ground before your knee extends out over your toe too much. </p>
<p>So my response is, I won’t be attempting her exact moves anytime in this lifetime!</p>
<p>MOWC - hope you’re doing OK and taking good care of yourself.</p>
<p>I agree. Parallel thigh is the concensus for as deep as you need to and should go on a squat. Not an issue for me. Parallel is as far as I can go.</p>
<p>And, doing a one-legged squat while standing on a box or step is a better way to do it. Svetlana does a “pistol squat” with the leg out in front. That’s not the prefered way.</p>
<p>But, we’ve gotta give you a round of applause for being the first person in CC diet/fitness/health thread history to do a single leg squat. I’m not close to being there.</p>
<p>Just got home from the blasted ER. I stood up from my office chair, heard/felt a terrible snap sound in my right knee and fell back into the chair.
Nothing broken or dislocated, thank goodness, but swollen & painful if I flex or try to put weight on it. So now I have crutches & a knee immobilizer until at least Monday when I am supposed to follow up with ortho. </p>
<p>Using the crutches hurts my back. I got benched from the pool for two days as well. “discouraged” is not a strong enough word. Enough already!!!</p>
Awesome.</p>
I walked a little on the dreadmill to try and improve my spirits and that didn’t work. No way could I do weights. Can I just finish my whine by saying I hate being sick!!! Was trying to channel MOWC to get through my workpout (;))</p>